HOPEWELL, Va. (WTKR) -- Two weeks after a Hopewell third grader discovered his grandfather died of a heart attack, he suffered a stroke.

Eight-year-old Jamarion Bryant, a student at Dupont Elementary school, is recovering in the pediatric intensive care unit at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU.

He was transferred there by ambulance from John Randolph Medical Center January 4, after complaining of a headache.

“He was like my head is hurting,” said Jamarion’s mother Tiffany Curry. “We gave him ibuprofen and we went upstairs and not even four minutes after that he started screaming, screaming and crying, ‘mom help me, help me!’”

“His face got real kind of pale and his mouth… the left side wouldn’t move,” she added.

RELATED: Mom says child's headache led to emergency surgery

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Mom says child's headache led to emergency surgery

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Mom says child's headache led to emergency surgery

A Virginia mother says her eight-year-old son first complained of a headache before scans showed bleeding and swelling on his brain.

A Virginia mother says her eight-year-old son first complained of a headache before scans showed bleeding and swelling on his brain.

A Virginia mother says her eight-year-old son first complained of a headache before scans showed bleeding and swelling on his brain.

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Jamarion had to undergo a 12-hour emergency surgery after scans showed bleeding and swelling in his brain.

“He had an arterial venous malformation, it’s a little different than an aneurysm but it’s an abnormal group of blood vessels that are weak and they broke, and when they broke he had a hemorrhage inside of his head,” said Dr. Mark Marinello, Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Medical Director at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU.

“It’s a life-threatening issue that many patients don’t survive.”

“They were able to go into his brain and resect all of those weakened blood vessels and remove them to prevent them from bleeding and this happening again,” said Dr. Marinello.

“I think I have cried every day all day,” said Curry. “Just watching him struggle is hard. If I didn’t stay on top of him and watch him, he could have easily passed away in the bed.”

Two weeks post-surgery, Jamarion is unable to talk and is experiencing weakness on his left side, but doctors remain optimistic.